To all you vets with ailing mice:

Not all mice use infrared to sense movement.  Some use tiny electrical
contacts that press against spoked wheels.  One wheel turns in response to
verticle movement, the other to horizontal movement.  Each wheel has two
contacts pressed against it, slightly offset from each other to determine
the rotational direction of the wheel.  The surfaces of these wheel spokes
and the contacts can pickup lint and other contaminants.  I have used an
electrical contact cleaner and compressed air to clean up the mess.
However, over time, the contacts wear down and suffer from microscopic
corrosion.  Bending the ccontacts to increase pressure on the wheels
provides temporary releif.  But once this process begins, it is time to
search for a new pointing device, mouse or otherwise.

Jerry Rasmussen
-----------

Jim Meagher wrote:

> The optical components of a mouse use infrared light so I doubt that
> sunlight caused your problems.  If at all, it may have been
> temperature
> more than light which caused your problems.
>
> I'm very surprised that your mouse still works after spraying paint
> into it.
>
> Jim Meagher
> =====
>

> >Hi, I'm not sure if this is relevant to your problem, but I noticed
> my
> >mouse was moving very erratically, even after several cleans. I
> >eventually found that it was only malfunctioning when it was very
> >sunny, and it seems that if I put the mouse in a shadow, it would
> work
> >fine. I presume the movement of the mouse ball is tracked by optical
> >means, with which direct sunlight would interfer with. My solution
> > to spray the inside of the mouse with black paint, which seemed to
> help.
> >
> >Hope this helps,
> >Rupert Thomas


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